Today With Sean O Rourke Friday 17 January 2014

Today with Sean O'Rourke

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CRC/PAC

There were gasps of amazement in the Public Accounts Committee room yesterday when it was revealed that Paul Kiely the former CEO of the Central Remedial Clinic had a pension pot amounting to an astonishing €742,000 euro.

The complex layers were peeled back in a letter read by the HSE’s Barry O’Brien to reveal the true extent of Mr.Kiely’s retirement package – before Christmas the committee had been told he got €200,000 tax free lump.

Former CEO of the CRC Brian Conlan told the committee that he was unaware of the three quarters of a million being paid to Paul Kiely.

Earlier on Morning Ireland Maria Nolan, the mother of a 17 month old child who is dependant on the services of Central Remedial Clinic made an emotional appeal to the public to continue to support the charity and was asked what she thought about the pensions controversy.

Sean was joined by the Chief Executive of the HSE, Tony O’Brien and Tom Clonan – a frequent guest on the programme as a security analyst – who’s 11 year old son has been helped by the CRC and has been following the controversy closely.

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CIF

It’s an industry that has been linked intrinsically to the story of the boom and the bust in our economy.

Ghost estates and the sudden disappearance of cranes from our city skylines served as footnotes to the fate that befell this country in recent years…but according to those at the top of the construction pyramid, the tide is now turning and after years of inactivity, they say there is cause for confidence in the building sector once again.

Sean was joined from our Cork studio by Tom Parlon who is Director General of the Construction Industry Federation.

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Crime and Drugs

More than 100 former TDs, senators and legal professionals are discussing drugs and criminality at a conference in Leinster House today.

The central issue today is whether the law is fit for purpose in terms of dealing with the threat posed by organised crime.

Dermot Ahern, who was Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform from May 2008 to January 2011 and Barry Galvin was a former legal officer with the Criminal Assets Bureau spoke to Sean this morning.

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Gathering

Well it was the week when the Dail reconvened after its Christmas and New Year break, and if TDs thought January might be a quiet month, they were met instead with a deluge of controversy over money spent at Irish Water, and the startling revelations that emerged at the Public Accounts Committee yesterday.

Here to discuss these stories and others that caught our attention during the week were Niamh Lyons, Political Correspondent with The Irish Daily Mail; Conor Pope, Consumer Affairs Correspondent with the Irish Times; Michael Clifford, Columnist with The Irish Examiner and Lise Hand of The Irish Independent.